026: February Cooking Notes

Everything I cooked last month

Throughout most of February I found myself reflecting on the past year, as my son’s first birthday loomed. A lot of emotions swirling as this sweet chapter comes to a close. I feel like I’m experiencing time as the 37-year-old that I am, but also experiencing infant time—in which a year probably feels like a century. The cliché that it flies by is true, but I find myself often wondering what this past year must have been like for my son. It felt fast to me—just one year of thirty-seven, but that one year encompasses his entire existence so far. I might feel like it flew, and already be feeling a melancholy nostalgia for it, as it comes to a close. Meanwhile he is blissfully unaware of the changes to come. This year there are adventures in store for us both, as I venture back to work (more on that at another time), and bring him along for the ride. I continue to feel awe-struck by my good fortune to have had the opportunity to do nothing but be a parent for an entire year. As I gear up to launch a business, while performing nearly-full-time childcare, I know I’ll look back on this year marveling at how simple but complicated it was, and how unexpectedly I enjoyed the rhythms of maintaining our home and getting to do that full time. When I see pictures of him from his first three months of life I barely recognize the alien sleeping or gazing back at me in the photo. I see familiarity in the set of his mouth in pictures of him asleep, but otherwise he looks wildly different. This is hard to fathom, since I spent so many hours just staring at him, trying so hard to commit every detail and affectation to memory. I hope I’m able to remember or document every little thing for the day his infant mannerisms and noises and quirks disappear. Impossible, I know.

Anyway, we finally got some wintery weather in February, which meant several days trapped inside (tough with an infant). We continued our journey of formula weaning (I’ll spare you!), and solid food (going fine/still stressful). We had a few visitors so I actually made some new fun things this past month.

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The Notables

Pork Noodle Soup with Broccoli Rabe & Fennel / I make this Alison Roman soup constantly, so I thought it merited a spot here. Wickedly easy to throw together, it reminds me of a hot Italian sausage dinner in soup form, due to the fennel and chili flakes that dominate the dish. It features the perfect balance of ingredients (meat, greens, carbs), so it really has it all. bizarrely I twice forgot to season it as I cooked—I don’t know where my brain was. Still good.

Skillet Cookie for Two / I was craving this from the instant Sohla El-Waylly published the recipe in her newsletter. I think she offered it up as a Valentine’s Day dessert, in the week leading up, but I made it on a random day after I’d been laid up with a flash illness. It was the perfect, decadent but fun treat. So much more exciting than regular chocolate chip cookies. We didn’t plan to eat the entire thing in one sitting, but that’s what happened. I need to make it again asap. My one regret is chopping the chocolate too small. I wanted chunkier bits of chocolate throughout (as you see in the photo of Sohla’s skillet cookie).

Pork Sausages with Herbed Millet / over the summer I bought a bag of millet grains from my favorite farmer at the Farmer’s Market, the sweet informative man that runs Great Joy Family Farm in Pine Bush. I used Nigella’s recipe for Herbed Millet, which I found on NYT Cooking (sorry for the paywall!), and served it with pork sausages and broccoli with lots of garlic, lemon, and butter. This was when I was still reeling from my brief but intense sickness and needed something hearty and fortifying.

Baked trout w/ caramelized fennel and salsa verde / I’ve already written about this meal, so I’ll keep it short. It’s probably my favorite meal of the whole month, and began my ongoing love affair with Rachel Roddy’s My Kitchen in Rome. You’ll see below how many meals I have already cooked from this book in just half a month. This oven-roasted whole fish and salsa verde combo is so effortless and delicious. I plan to make variations of this on the regular.

Two Tortillas / another new obsession, thanks to Rachel Roddy’s book, is the tortilla. This past month I made two versions: the famous combination of potato and onion, which you’ll find all over Spain, and I remember enjoying for the first time on a trip to Barcelona in college; as well as a mint and ricotta version. Regrettably, neither turned out very well, simply due to my lack of skill. In my defense, it’s a tough dish to pull off, and the biggest issue being that I don’t have a good nonstick pan these days. A 9 inch cast-iron skillet is ideal. My ceramic nonstick is only truly nonstick on very very very low heat. The proper inversion did not happen, and sadly I burnt the bottom of the ricotta and mint tortilla, which ruined the flavors. I’ll master this one day! Honestly they were both delicious anyway.

Store-bought spinach ravioli with butter-parmesan-pepper sauce / I’m rediscovering the joys and ease of store-bought ravioli for nights when a lot of cooking just isn’t going to happen. Just pick a good sauce recipe to pair with it and you’re set. I found this delicious butter-parm-pepper sauce from Samin Nosrat on NYT, and ugh so good. So easy.

Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake / this is another favorite Alison Roman recipe. The turmeric serves only to turn the cake a gorgeous, almost neon yellow when you cut into it. I love this cake. It’s easy, but you might notice from the photo (at the top), how many testers I needed. It ended up in the oven a lot longer than expected, as I continue to experiment and get to know my oven. It’s always a challenge baking and browning. We had visitors (love you, Maria and Quentin), and I was excited that I managed to bake a little cake for the first time in a long while.

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Everything I cooked in February

2.1.23 / Beans on Toast with a spinach salad

2.2.23 / Chicken stock; Pork Noodle Soup with Broccoli Rabe & Fennel (recipe, Alison Roman)

2.3.23 / Broccoli Pasta (Carter Were)

2.4.23 / Lamb Meatballs (David Tanis, NYT)

2.6.23 / Spinach frittata; Boquerones on mayo-sourdough toast; Zucchini Pasta (Carter Were)

2.7.23 / Omelette; Soft-scrambled egg sandwich on foccaccia (Saltie); Baked potatoes and broccoli

2.8.23 / Omelette; Soft-scrambled eggs and toast (Saltie); Mushroom ragu pasta (NYT)

2.9.23 / Pork sausages w/ millet (latter: Nigella Lawson) and broccoli (w/ lemon and butter); Pot of beans

2.12.23 / Pork Noodle soup with fennel & broccoli rabe (Alison Roman); giant chocolate chip skillet cookie (Sohla El-Waylly)

2.13.23 / Spinach frittata

2.14.23 / Baked trout w/ caramelized fennel and salsa verde (Rachel Roddy, My Kitchen in Rome); Affogato for dessert

2.15.23 / Omelette; Lemon Rice Pudding (Laurie Colwin, More Home Cooking); Cocoa oatmeal (Lukas Volger)

2.16.23 / Tortellini (store-bought) with tomato sauce (Samin Nosrat, NYT)

2.17.23 / Tomato & Sardine Toasts

2.18.23 / Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake (Alison Roman, NYT); Broccoli Pasta (Carter Were)

2.19.23 / Pork Noodle Soup with Broccoli Rabe & Fennel (Alison Roman); Spinach frittata

2.20.23 / Omelette

2.21.23 / Italian Style tortilla (w/ onions and potatoes) (Rachel Roddy, My Kitchen in Rome); Citrus-roasted Arctic Char (Alison Roman)

2.22.23 / Oatmeal

2.23.23. / Mushroom & Coriander Frittata

2.24.23 / Store-bought spinach ravioli with, butter-parmesan-pepper sauce (sauce: Samin Nosrat, NYT)

2.25.23 / White beans with garlic, sage, and sausages (Rachel Roddy, My Kithcen in Rome)

2.26.23 / Ricotta & Mint tortilla (Rachel Roddy, My Kitchen in Rome)

2.27.23 / Ricotta & Black Pepper Pasta (Rachel Roddy, My Kitchen in Rome)

2.28.23 / Broccoli Pasta (Carter Were) with Ditalini for Tycho/Bucatini for me & R